This adoption of a ” standing army ” naturally increased the personal power of the chiefs at the expense of the clan, as the continued warfare against the Norse had done in an earlier period. Nor was this the only way in which feudal ideas were having an influence upon the Irish organisations.

 The great practical advantage of an established system of succession was being forcibly illustrated, and the feudal right of the son to succeed to the father was being partly recognised. Many of the disputes which occurred in the families from which the chiefs were selected were due to the conflict of the two ideas.

The chiefs were becoming territorial lords with the right of handing down their authority to their own families. The dues, or tributes, payable from the earliest times by the minor clans to the superior chiefs  were also materially altered.

Above : Another Picture Of Henry II

It will be seen, therefore, that so far as the submissions made to Henry II by the Irish chiefs were concerned, there was not so much difference between the Irish and feudal conceptions of their meaning. In Ireland, from time immemorial, the chiefs of a tribe or an oi^-jm’ acknowledged the supremacy of the \u without sacrificing the internal independence or the possessions of his clan. Nor did the homage paid to the •cV.jvo-’Rt before the time of Brian confer upon him any right to interfere in the jurisdiction of such of the ” provincial Kings” as acknowledged him. The removal of the ” provincial Kings ” had left the political integrity of the clans unimpaired, although their chiefs now submitted to the High King himself direct. Similar personal submissions conferring no right of interference in internal affairs were well known under feudalism. Henry himself paid homage to the King of France, but had absolute dominion over his duchies of Normandy and Aquitaine and his other possessions, and he was, in fact, at constant war with his liege lord. The dukes and counts who ruled most of what is now France were similarly placed, and so also were the kings, dukes and electors who comprised the Empire of the Germans. Kings of Scotland had frequently paid homage and fealty to English Kings, but they still ruled their own Kingdom.